Doggie tummy trouble

[LBJ10]

Yeah so I came home from work today and found a not so pleasant surprise. The dog’s butt had practically exploded in the living room and it smelled so bad I was gagging/dry heaving while trying to clean it up. We needed to leave so my husband and I left her home and we went to do our business. When we came back, there was another goopy surprise waiting for us. Ewww. Anyway, I have absolutely no idea what she ate, but she is obviously having some sort of gastrointestinal distress. Does anyone know of any remedies? If she’s not better tomorrow, then I’ll have to call the vet. My feeling though is that she ate something nasty, since this has happened in the past. Ugh, why do they have to do this on the weekends?

[Malp_15]

In my experience if they are having diarrhea they didn’t eat something (ex. Toy) unless you find pieces in it. Pills and toxic foods will show up as diarrhea sometimes. I would definately bring to the vet tomorrow if it hasn’t stopped. They get dehydrated REALLY fast when vomiting or having diarrhea.

Plain white rice can help settle their stomach, but it is definately not a cure

[LBJ10]

She seems a little better now. I’m not sure what she could have gotten into. I remember one time she got sick, but I knew exactly what it was that she had gotten. She is an old dog though now too, so who knows what could cause upset now. I’m going to keep an eye on it tonight and hopefully she will be good tomorrow. She was drinking a lot of water earlier, so hopefully she is okay in that department.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Vet is good, especially for a senior dog. I hope you put her in the yard while you cleaned so she wasn’t ashamed while you were cleaning and gagging!! Dogs are so sweet and try to please, I think it’s so important we don’t embarass them.

I woudn’t throw my hands up so quickly uttering ‘I don’t know’ -check your garbage (Bathroom, kitchen etc), talk to hubby (maybe he shared a treat) and examine her routines and what has happened lately. You know something as simple as a UPS guy coming and knocking on the door for a while could upset a dog, and cause an upset tummy. So examine everything, dismiss nothing and see the vet. I would bring a stool sample so the vet can screen and perhaps request x-rays and bloodwork-especially for an older pooch.

Please keep us posted!!

[LBJ10]

Haha! She was already hiding when we got home, so she wasn’t in the immediate vicinity when I was in the living room dry heaving. Afterward, I went to find her. I asked her what happened (in a nice voice) and she just looked up at my a wagged her tail in that pathetic way she does when she thinks she’s in trouble.
Anyway, I watched her this morning and her poo still looked soft but it was forming better. I have to work again today, so my husband is going to have to watch her and make sure it keeps improving. I’ll have to ask him if he knows of anything. Our garbage is kept in a pull out cupboard (it’s like a monster sized drawer) so she couldn’t have gotten anything from there. That’s why I say I don’t know what she could have possibly gotten.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Bathroom garbage, shampoo/toiletries, plates left out, clothing, plants, bunny stuff -there are tons of hazards out there! Keep us posted!

[LBJ10]

LOL, she is notorious for eating tissues so we keep the bathroom garbage on top of the over John cabinet (yep, it’s like shooting baskets in the bathroom). There is no evidence that she has gotten into anything. The rabbit room is blocked off with a baby gate and there’s no way her wiener doggie legs could jump over it. Yep, no clue whatsoever. Thanks for checking in with us again though. She actually had another accident in the house today, but it didn’t look nearly as bad as it did before. She has been eating and drinking just fine. My husband gave her some of her probiotics today, although I don’t know how much good they will do. I’m going to call the vet and see what they say. They might tell me to bring her in, I don’t know.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

How old is she?

[LBJ10]

She is 12, she’ll be 13 in October. Poor thing, I hope nothing serious is wrong. She has some benign fatty tumors that the vet is reluctant to remove (she didn’t do so well with the anesthesia when we had her teeth cleaned awhile back) and she has had some arthritis pain in her front legs, but she has otherwise been doing okay. No back problems at least.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

At that age, I’d see a vet rather then assume she might have gotten into something. Tummy troubles could be cancers or really anything at that age. Its really abnormal for an adult who is trained to have accidents in a row so I would think this is a flashing red ‘take me to the vet’ thing. Please keep us posted.

[MimzMum]

Most times when a dog has the trots it means they got into something their system is best rid of quickly, hence the diarrhea. It’s just the body attempting to eliminate the foreign organism as quickly as possible, which can be a good thing indeed.

I just read up on things that are poisonous to dogs and would like to add that sometimes the symptoms of serious illness can take a few days to show up as well. Like if a dog eats an onion, the resulting haemolytic anemia won’t become evident until a few days have passed. Not to scare you or anything, I just know that when my dog is making messes she shouldn’t be, if I’ve got any question as to what caused it, I get her to a vet. She’s just a wee thing and something a larger dog might pass without trouble she would be very ill after ingesting.
That being said, she’s also a rather nervous pup, so I take her emotions into account too. She does a lot of hacking and coughing if I go to the store for too long. I’ve had my vet look to be sure nothing is awry with her windpipe and so we can chalk that up to nervous tension and anxiety.

I know my older dogs also had more tummy trouble than they did when young, so her age is a factor.

Doesn’t that ‘don’t be mad, Mummy,’ look just freeze your heart? I seem to bring home the doggies that have had some trauma in their lives and every one of them would give me those sad, watery, big brownies when I would come to see what they did wrong. Like I’d ever give them any grief…I’m a puddle as soon as they flash those looks at me!

[Malp_15]

I agree. I have seen bloody diarrhea, multiple times, turn out to be pancreatitis. Also not all toxicities become fatal immediately. I would have to look them up again, but I’ve read of some that take 4-5 days for the symptoms to progress past diarrhea or vomiting. We reccomend seeing vets here for similar things in bunnies, why not dogs?

[LBJ10]

After making several marathon sprints to the back door last night, my husband finally left her out in the living room. I found her sleeping on the couch this morning, she looked so upset. I called the vet’s office, they told me to stop feeding her. Withhold food for 24 hours and then give her some plain rice. If it doesn’t clear up then, then they want to see her. Does this sound right? Maybe that is just standard procedure to keep people from bringing their dogs in unnecessarily.

[Lintini]

Heya

Our Pom had the scoots for 3 days, my mom tried everything – plain rice and no other food too. She then took him to the vet. Wickypom had pancreatitis! He got some medicine from the vets, probiotics and some special food and was back to himself in a few days. He was absolutely miserable and so were we. With his long hair we had to give him about 6 “butt baths” a day and he was SO UPSET and depressed! He just wanted to hide under the bed and mope.

I see it’s been 3 days too for you and she still has the scoots? I would bring her in, 3 days is way too long for the scoots to still be happening.

[LBJ10]

Yeah, I asked them about that since it has been a few days. They said as long as we are feeding her, she’s going to continue to have the diarrhea. They said to stop feeding her, wait 24 hours, and then feed her some rice. If it isn’t better after that, then call back. You’re saying I shouldn’t try it, but to push them to see her?

[LBJ10]

By the way, 24 hours without food will be this evening. I called the vet this morning and she hadn’t eaten her breakfast yet, so she really hasn’t had anything since last night.

[Lintini]

In my opinion since she is an older dog and has been sick for 3 days and you said she looks upset, I would go ahead and take her in.

If this is your usual vets office and they know she is older, has been sick for a few days and still recommend you withhold food first then do rice and see how that goes; and if you are comfortable with that then try it.

I hope she starts feeling better soon and that the rice will calm her tummy or the vets have a simple diagnoses for you.

[Malp_15]

My office reccomends with holding food for and then giving plain white rice for cases like this, but usually only when the people are saying they are too broke to hospitalize the animal. So if you are concerned I would phone and book an appointment because I don’t know of any vet that would refuse a check up It’s money in their pocket even if it turns out everything is fine.

You should stop feeding no matter what, because if she does get hospitalized then they will have her on no food anyway.

[LBJ10]

Well it is understandable that she is upset, she thinks she’s in trouble. I haven’t scolded her or anything though, I think she just knows that she’s not supposed to do that in the house. Yes this is the vet that we always go to. They have seen her since she was a puppy. This isn’t the same vet that we take the rabbits to, they are the “exotic” vet. She hasn’t had an accident yet today, but we have been letting her out frequently. Since it will just be tonight before she gets some rice to eat, I think we will probably wait until tomorrow to call the vet back. They can usually squeeze someone in on the same day anyway so I’ll just be sure to call in the morning.

[LBJ10]

We think it’s the food! I just googled “ORlJEN dog food diarrhea”, a bunch of stuff comes up with people complaining about the food. We were switching her over to the food because it was helping with her throwing up all the time. I talked about it on here before I think. Anyway, we still had this big bag of her old food and we didn’t want to waste it so have been been mixing it the last couple of months. A few days before this happened, we ran out of the mix and I started feeding her the ORlJEN straight from the bag.

[LBJ10]

Okay things seem to be better now. We stopped the food to empty her system and we have now been feeding her rice. I called the vet again and they said if the diarrhea has stopped, then it would be okay to try giving her some dog food tomorrow. She hasn’t had any more accidents and her poop looks much better (a little rice-y, but better). Anyway, we got some different food to try. We’ll mix that with her old food first and then try to make the switch again.

[Malp_15]

glad to hear everything is going good Your vet probably told you this, but when you start her on food again give in smaller more frequent meals to not shock her stomach

[Malp_15]

glad to hear everything is going good Your vet probably told you this, but when you start her on food again give in smaller more frequent meals to not shock her stomach

[LBJ10]

Yeah, we’ll start her off slowly. She’s hungry though (I don’t think the rice is doing it for her), so hopefully she will actually taste the food.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

because it was helping with her throwing up all the time.

Ok I think the bigger picture is you have a dog who is throwing up and having diarhea, and is old. I think you need to see a vet soon. I would just feed plain rice and boiled chicken for now and see the vet. She’s 12, throws up and has loose stool-don’t chalk this up to food please see a vet!

[Molzy]

Plain canned pumpkin can help with diarrhea, I think it a tablespoon per 10 lbs of body weight. They make some specifically for dogs, but you can also buy it at the grocers, just get one without anything added (a lot of them add sugar and stuff).

Orijen can be a little hard on dog’s stomachs, especially an older dogs. What food are you trying now? California Natural and Natural Balance both make some great sensitive stomach formulas, and I am a huge fan of Wellness as well.

I agree that it might be worth getting some bloodwork done on her at her age, just to be on the safe side and make sure all her organs are functioning properly!

Good luck!

[Malp_15]

Wellness worked for you? I put my animals on it and my cat got diarrhea, one of my dogs got diarrhea, and the other dog gOt really bad farts

[LBJ10]

Posted By Kokaneeandkahlua on 06/08/2011 09:49 PM

because it was helping with her throwing up all the time.

Ok I think the bigger picture is you have a dog who is throwing up and having diarhea, and is old. I think you need to see a vet soon. I would just feed plain rice and boiled chicken for now and see the vet. She’s 12, throws up and has loose stool-don’t chalk this up to food please see a vet!

 

She wasn’t throwing up and having diarrhea at the same time. Maybe you remember my thread back in February (it’s here: https://www.binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/a…fault.aspx)? The vet diagnosed her with acid reflux and we thought maybe a grain-free food would help. As soon as we started switching her over (half old food and half new food), we saw an immediate improvement. No more problems with throwing up. Things were going wonderfully, really. We had a lot of the old food, so she was eating the mix for quite awhile but we wanted to make a complete switch once it was all used up. Well, last week, we finally got there. I gave her the new food without the old food mixed in. Within a couple of days she was having explosive diarrhea. We didn’t make the connection at first, we thought maybe she had gotten into something. We couldn’t find anything she could have possibly gotten and that’s when we thought it was the food. The timing was perfect and it is consistent with complaints I have read online. The vet didn’t seem too concerned when I called about the diarrhea, they just said to do what I talked about above. Her diarrhea has stopped so what we did worked. At her last check-up, the vet said that, despite her issues, she was healthy.

[LBJ10]

Posted By Molzy on 06/09/2011 06:51 AM
Plain canned pumpkin can help with diarrhea, I think it a tablespoon per 10 lbs of body weight. They make some specifically for dogs, but you can also buy it at the grocers, just get one without anything added (a lot of them add sugar and stuff).

Orijen can be a little hard on dog’s stomachs, especially an older dogs. What food are you trying now? California Natural and Natural Balance both make some great sensitive stomach formulas, and I am a huge fan of Wellness as well.

I agree that it might be worth getting some bloodwork done on her at her age, just to be on the safe side and make sure all her organs are functioning properly!

Good luck!

 

We got Acana to try. It’s the same manufacturer, but less animal protein.

[MimzMum]

LBJ10, I thought I’d link you to my Yorkie forum, they had an article on Orijen and Acana:

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yorkie-health-diet/229206-orijen-recalls.html

Perhaps your dog is reacting to a bad batch of the food? It seems silly to me that someone would assume that dogs don’t have trouble with salmonella, but I would think an older dog just might.

What a shame, Orijen was supposed to be such a good food, if I hadn’t found Natural Balance I would’ve put Jenna on it.

Molzy, where do you find canned pumpkin made for dogs? 0_o I’d like a bit of that since my baking aisle is almost always out of stock until November!

[LBJ10]

Oh my, the formula that was listed for the 2011 recall is the kind I just bought. They wouldn’t have the recalled ones at the pet store would they? How would I find out? It doesn’t give any information about production codes or anything on there. I fed her some of it and she seems okay so far. We had to get the rest of the rice poop out yesterday and then I was going to monitor what was coming out today.

[MimzMum]

I’m sorry dear, I just added the link. My computer is starting to have hard drive trouble and I didn’t open it to read the article, just wanted to get it posted here quickly before the PC crashed.
Depending on where you are, I don’t know how long ago the recall was, but even here in Alaska they get bad products off shelves pretty quickly. Check your lot numbers on the bag or even call the food company and ask them if your bag is one of the recalled ones.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Hey Mimz=this is OT but more to the link-it’s important to note that the forum links are to other forum discussions. The only recall on orijen to date was a voluntary recall because irradated cat food in Australia caused illness (irridation is a mandate by Australia for imports) and orijen does not export to australia anymore as they believe the irridation caused the chemical change. If you search the FDA website their have not been other issues There are so many scares and internet lore, it’s hard to know what to feed! I prepare a lot of Mikey’s food for him myself.

Anyways OT
LBJ-I know your dog wasn’t having diarhea and vomitting at the same time, but in an elderly dog that’s concerning. When was the last full checkup and blood panel?

[LBJ10]

Oops, I totally did not see your response. Sorry about that. Let’s see, she had her yearly checkup back in January. They didn’t do any blood work at that time. The vet was pretty sure it was acid reflux, so we didn’t push the issue. I believe she had some sort of blood work done at her annual exam prior to that one. I can’t remember what they looked for. They have to send certain things off to an independent lab because they are not equipped there. I will see if I can find the paperwork, it’s probably buried in the nightmare we call a filing cabinet.

 

By the way, she has been doing much better lately. She’s eating her food and not having any issues.

[Molzy]

Posted By Malp_15 on 06/09/2011 09:14 AM
Wellness worked for you? I put my animals on it and my cat got diarrhea, one of my dogs got diarrhea, and the other dog gOt really bad farts

I had great luck with it – it was the first food that my dog (basset-mix) EVER lost weight on, and he was on it for the last 3 years or so of his life. Which Wellness did you use? I used the original formulas, not the core – I think some dogs might react badly to the core due to the high protein content.

Molzy, where do you find canned pumpkin made for dogs? 0_o I’d like a bit of that since my baking aisle is almost always out of stock until November!

 

I get it at a local pet store in Minneapolis – it’s called “Tummy Yum Yum” I think. They also make a sweert potato which can be a nice filler as well for dogs that need it.

 

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